Downtown Denville

eat local

Downtown Denville’s Restaurant Week Begins!

Downtown Denville’s Annual Restaurant Week kicked off on Sunday, September 20, and there are 15 restaurants downtown sharing delicious specials to entice you to eat local. You’ll find everything from a different ten dollar special at Thatcher McGhee’s every day to a 10% discount off chalkboard specials at Carver’s. This is a great way to discover a new restaurant or revisit an old favorite.

With many of the downtown Denville restaurants recently voted “best in Morris County,” this is the perfect time to celebrate with them, and to continue to support our restaurant community. Restaurant Week continues through Thursday, September 24, and you can find a full list of participants at Dine Out Denville. There is an interactive map this year – just click on the orange pins to find the details from each participating restaurant. Even if a restaurant doesn’t have a special this week, they all would appreciate your patronage. This year has been challenging for many small business owners, and this is the perfect time to give our restaurants a little boost of support. With many offering outdoor and indoor dining, take out and delivery, you’ll find a convenient and delicious way to eat your way through Denville this week!

Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram – we’d love to see and share! Happy eating!

Indoor Dining Opens in Denville

What a long strange trip it has been. As New Jersey takes another step on their path to reopening, Denville restaurants ready themselves to offer indoor dining at 25% capacity. With restaurant margins being what they are, while this is a positive next step, it still continues to be challenging to run a restaurant in 2020.

We checked in with several of our downtown restaurants to get their thoughts on indoor dining. Jason Robbins, General Manager of Thatcher McGhee’s said, “These bizarre times are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. But these bizarre times have brought out the best in many, especially the town and people of Denville. When restaurants couldn’t open at all, people supported small business by ordering in, and when outside dining opened, we were allowed to extend our area and people came out in droves. Now with the excitement of indoor dining, we know they will once again show us their support by joining us to celebrate.” Thatcher McGhee’s, on Broadway, was recently voted #1 Irish restaurant in Morris County.

Carver’s on First Avenue is a popular breakfast and lunch destination. A small, quaint restaurant with a downhome vibe, the lockdown hurt their business substantially. “The pandemic has decimated our daily business to a mere 1/3 of our regular sales. Each sale during this time kept us holding on. The greatness of Denville as a community has kept baking and soup making at a high in spite of everything. We are elated indoor dining is resuming and hope to serve as many folks as possible! We will serving at a first come basis as we try and navigate through the changes and requirements. Thank you Denville for keeping Carver’s strong,” said the owner, Carver Parrish.

Jesus Gomez, owner of El Mejicano, is “excited to be able to see our friends back in our home even if it’s in a limited capacity!” He and his staff have been busy with take-out orders during the pandemic, and he is also co-owner of the new bakery that is opening up in a few weeks, Vikingos Cake Shoppe & Bakery.

The Second Half on Main, a popular pub downtown, has been doing take out orders and serving in their beautiful outdoor dining area. Diane Gentile said, “We are beyond grateful to our awesome patrons and the Town of Denville for their unwavering support through these very difficult months. We cannot wait to welcome those that are ready back indoors.”

Whether a restaurant is doing indoor dining, outdoor dining, takeout or delivery, they all need your continued support to survive the current and ongoing challenges small business owners face in 2020. You can support them by eat locally, of course, leaving reviews on their Yelp! and Google pages, and following and sharing their social media accounts. A strong community is what allows small business owners to continue to deliver consistent and quality products and services. Our tag line, “where a community comes together,” has never been more true than this year.

Denville Wins Best Downtown {2020}!

Although we have always known it, now others will as well … Denville has been crowned Best Downtown in Morris County by the 2020 Readers’ Choice Awards from Morris/Essex Health & Life magazine! Beyond the overall downtown award win, many of our stores, restaurants, and service-based businesses have taken top honors in their individual categories as well (see below). This comes as no surprise as downtown Denville is a consistent destination to many that seek out our top-rated restaurants, boutiques, and all ’round charming atmosphere.

Ample free parking, upbeat music piped through the sound system on Broadway, gorgeous hanging flower baskets, and a real Small Town USA community environment continues to brings visitors and residents to our area regularly. Small towns like Denville continue to compete daily against large brick-and-mortar businesses, and the personalized customer service and unique mix of establishments edge them out against their competing giants. In a year that has been particularly challenging, awards like this do much to buoy the spirits of small business owners.

Come to Denville and continue to support your local businesses, and they will continue to deliver for you … both in exceptional experiences and in supporting the community. After all, it’s their community too.

A huge thank you to all who voted for Denville in the nomination process – it’s your ongoing support that keeps our community moving forward. Now get out there and shop, eat, and support local!

*Our Downtown Relief Fund is another wonderfully easy to support our community as well; more details can be found here.

Welcome to downtown Denville: Vikingos Cake Shoppe & Bakery!

Although they signed the lease just about a year ago, there was much behind-the-scenes work to be done to bring Vikingos Cake Shoppe & Bakery to life. Co-Owners Jillian VanStrander and Jesus Gomez and their team have been working hard on finishing up last minutes details and are aiming for opening on September 12th. Be sure to follow the Vikingos facebook and Instagram page to keep up with the latest news and confectionery creations. Now let’s get to know Jillian, and what she has in store for the bakery and the Denville community.

You’re finally opening! Denville has been waiting a long time for this, as have you! Any first day jitters?
We are very happy to be here! I think this last year of hard work and preparation has worked in our benefit as far as first day jitters go. The excitement is beating out any nerves!

Tell us who your ideal customer is.
I think anyone who walks through our door is our ideal customer to be honest! But truly, my ideal customer would be one that grows with us and one that I get to watch grow in return. I want to be able to make someone’s sixth birthday cake (keep me creative), make their sweet sixteen cake (keep me young), and then make their wedding cake (keep me grateful). I want our creations to be a special part of people’s lives. 

What is the story behind the bakery’s name and logo?
I don’t think it’s any secret that Viking Bakery was a community staple for many years. We wanted to pay homage to that history while being able to start fresh as new owners with our own vision. Vikingos Cake Shoppe & Bakery is our fun spin on town history. 

Will you offer gluten free/ sugar free selections? Are you able to accommodate allergies?
Gluten free and sugar free items are something that need to be handled properly and safely so that people are able to enjoy them just as freely as anyone else. I very much plan on being able to offer these items soon as I have hired a pastry assistant who is actually gluten free herself! I think we’ll be able to come up with some really great stuff together! However to start, we will be trying to nail down the current menus we have in place and adding those specialty items as we go. 

These are crazy times for businesses – what pandemic practices will you employ?
Yes, these certainly are crazy times but here we are! We will, of course, require masks upon entry & will be marking off lines to help facilitate social distancing. We changed our opening strategy to include a lot more grab & go items like pre-packaged cupcake boxes, donut boxes, and variety platters so people can pop in and out for these items easily. We were also able to set up a handheld POS system so we’ll be able to take orders and check people out while they’re waiting in line just to limit any extra crowding. 

We’re coming into your bakery to get just one thing – what should it be?
My hope is that our customers will be leaving with more than just one thing! Our variety is pretty impressive – I have put a lot of thought into designing our house menu & packaged items to be able to include something for everyone! If you don’t see your favorite flavor or combination, just ask! We’re ready and happy to accommodate.  Let’s fill those pastry boxes up! 

Any savory menu items planned? Oddly enough, I myself am not a dessert person, so I’d love to be able to offer more savory items down the line. I definitely have a few things in mind! Stay tuned.

Do you plan to have any locally sourced ingredients or work with our neighboring businesses? Denville is such a great community. There would be absolutely no reason not to take advantage of all of the great resources it provides. I very much look forward to being here as a business owner and collaborating with other business owners whenever possible!

What is your signature pastry? This should be a much easier question to answer than it is! I really am so incredibly proud of what we offer that it’s hard for me to choose just one thing. Our “Caramel Cinnabon” Cake would be very close to the top of the list, though. I think people will really enjoy our donuts too, as they are old fashioned cake style and not fried. You don’t see that a whole lot anymore!

Why a bakery?
Why not? I have the rare opportunity to not only be a part of our customer’s daily routine but a part of their life. Whether it’s to help them pick out their morning donut or to help their child pick out an after school cupcake because they aced their math test. Birthday cakes. Fiftieth anniversary cakes. ‪Sunday dinner‬ desserts. Life is worth celebrating – small wins and big wins. I get to see them all and I get to do it with sprinkles. That’s why a bakery. For me, it will always be a bakery.

vikingosbakery@gmail.com
973-625-4444
34 First Avenue
Denville, NJ 07834

Check back later in the week as we will be introducing you to another business coming to town!

Event Recap {Denville After Dark}

Did you attend our third Denville After Dark event last week? Once again, Mother Nature cooperated and nearly 1000 people came downtown to enjoy our merchants, fitness classes, restaurants, live music, classic cars, and more as we closed the streets to provide ample space for everyone to move around.

Both Pure Barre Denville and Prana Yoga took to Broadway for the first ever pop-up exercise classes in the street and many jumped at the chance to participate. Once the classes were finished, live music began from the Sugar Daddy Trio and Christy and Steve, both acoustic rock groups back for their second shows in downtown Denville.

Many retailers stayed open late to take advantage of the festivities, and several restaurants moved additional tables into the street to accommodate more diners. With a few new vendors appearing this time, including the sale of yellow rubber ducks for the Rotary’s upcoming Virtual Duck Race, and caricature artist Steve Nyman, there was really something for everyone to enjoy. Just the ability to safely roam the streets with an ice cream cone or shaved ice in hand was a welcome breath of fresh air to summer.

Tap Into Denville and News12 New Jersey were both on hand to report on the evening, and it was a nice low-key community event for residents and guests to feel good (and safe) about attending.

Our next Denville After Dark event is on Friday, September 25th (at the end of this year’s Restaurant Week, which will be 9/20-24). If you are interested in being an event sponsor, or having a vendor table, please e-mail bmesa@downtowndenville.com.

*above photographs taken by Brad Resnick Photography, one of our bronze sponsors for the evening. Additional sponsors for the evening included Saint Francis Residential Community, The Sheeran Real Estate Group, GYM GUYZ, and The Peer Hyatt Selling Team.